This evening, the pre-opening of the 80th Venice Film Festival will present the world premiere screening of Portrait of Gina (1958) by Orson Welles, in a version restored by the Filmmuseum München thanks to the contribution of Cinecittà, and La Provinciale (1953) by Mario Soldati, restored for the occasion by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale and in collaboration with Compass Film.
An event entirely dedicated to Gina Lollobrigida will open the Festival and will be part of a broader series of initiatives in memory of the recently deceased actress. The Undersecretary for Culture Lucia Borgonzoni and Cinecittà President Chiara Sbarigia, the creators of the project, emphasised how “already in June we wanted to honour the figure of Gina Lollobrigida with the great photographic exhibition I mondi di Gina, currently underway in Rome.” “We could not but wish,” they added, “that the most important event in Italian cinema should also celebrate an actress and a woman who brought our cinema to the world.
The figure of the actress will be commemorated throughout the Festival with other initiatives proposed by the MIC and Cinecittà, such as a photographic exhibition dedicated to her and Anna Magnani, which will be held in the Hotel Excelsior on the Lido, and the presentation, on September 6 at the Italian Pavilion, of the postage stamp issued by the Italian Post Office.
Photo credits: PxHere
